Project Activity Sort for bb

A bb plugin that changes one thing: project sections are ordered by the most recent thread update in each project.

If project def contains the newest thread, def appears first. When a thread in xyz receives a newer updatedAt value, xyz moves above it.

How it works

The plugin has no UI. bb's bundled Thread list plugin keeps drawing the sidebar, so unread indicators, activity spinners, row menus, collapse behavior, drag and drop, and keyboard navigation all behave exactly as in stock bb.

A small server-side process keeps the Thread list plugin's sectionOrder preference in activity order:

• Rank each project by max(thread.updatedAt) across its visible, non-archived threads.
• Reorder only the project:<id> entries in sectionOrder; Pinned, Threads, and any other entries keep their positions.
• Keep the current order when update times tie.
• Leave bb's Personal project in the Threads section.

A nested child thread contributes activity to its root thread's project.

The plugin re-syncs on thread lifecycle events (debounced), every five minutes as a fallback, and on start. It writes only when the order actually changes. The preference syncs through the bb server, so every window and device updates live.

Ordering applies when the sidebar is organized By project (bb thread-list prefs set organizationMode project). Manually dragging a project works, but the next thread update re-sorts the list.

Compatibility

Requires bb >=0.43 (the release where the sidebar became the bundled thread-list plugin) and plugin SDK >=0.5.9. The plugin reads and writes the preference through the Thread list plugin's listPreferences and setPreference RPC methods. The same data is available from bb thread-list prefs get sectionOrder.

Version 0.1.0 targeted bb 0.39–0.42. It replaced the sidebar list and wrote localStorage. It does not work on bb 0.43 or later.

Install from GitHub

bb plugin install \
  git:https://github.com/ben-vargas/bb-plugins.git@main \
  --plugin project-activity-sort

If you pinned Projects by recent activity as the sidebar provider in an earlier version, switch Settings → Appearance → Sidebar back to Automatic or Thread list.

Develop and verify

From the monorepo root:

npm install
npm run ci
bb plugin install path:. --plugin project-activity-sort
bb plugin dev plugins/project-activity-sort